Irritating!!!!!!!

Managed to spend 12 hours in London yesterday for my photography trip.

It was an ok experience but I think I would need to return again for additional shots.

The weather (0 degrees with strong easterly wind) and the short day (sun sets at 330pm) made things very demanding.

London as you know is a world famous tourist attraction- Big Ben, London eye, Tower of London etc.
Yesterday was just full of tourist flocking to every possible corner and crevices of London.
I will try to post the pics later.

But I had only spent about probably 6 hours doing 'real photography'.

The remaining time was spent doing other things which I need to warn all dSLR users.
It's the most irritating, hair-pulling and day-ruining aspect of this trip.


1. Carrying dSLR comes great responsibility.
Tourist look up to us as professionals.
You are like the Pope to the Christians and Paris Hilton to the guys.
They will shoot wherever you mount your tripod.
Had a couple who was stalking me for about 20minutes!
Takes photos from every spot I take.
I actually don't mind them following me.
But the problem is- they block my view!!!!! (esp with my wide angle lens).


2. Part time photographer
This is another irritating thing. Be prepared to do this free of charge.
As you are assumed to be a pro, tourist will attempt to grab every possible chance to make you take a photo for them.
They think I am able to produce a masterpiece from a low end compact camera.
It's usually the new couple (straights, gays and lesbians) giving this problem.
I had to do this at least 20times (one of my friends came along and he also 'kena' about the same number of times- He uses the Olympus E series with a hood on his lens making him even more pro looking. And he dresses much better than myself(Cina apek))

The worst experience was when a joker asked me to take a photo of him using his sony handphone! The picture was full of flares and he insisted that I was the cause. He refuse to take the shot in another spot becoz he wanted big ben on his head. The flares persisted despite him changing the settings. We took about 10 shots before he gave up and moved on.


3. Be prepared to lend things
I have had to lend them the following:-

Tripod

Flash

Lens cloth


4. Point, click, aargh!
Had this on 2 occasions.
They just come up to you and ask why so dark? why so blurr?
Be prepared to tell them to get a dSLR and tripod.


5. You are from China unless proven otherwise.
This is the most unbearable comment I had to endure yesterday.
Felt a little insulted actually.
After taking their picture FOC, they will preview my shot and say 'amazing, fantastic, great, blah blah blah).
(But all I did was just to press the button! But I guess its called the placebo effect)

After this brief 'angkat' session they will end the conversation with an anti-climax phrase "eh...are you from China?"

And I am always tempted to respond "eh....are you from russia?"


6. Be prepared to give tutorials
Happened to me on one occasion.
Couldn't 'tahan'
Asian couple (not sure about nationality)
Asked me to take their photo with their Canon 450D (with the 'low yah' Kit lens)
I then went through his settings.
I nearly fainted!!!!!
He used Manual setting (respect-lah brother!)
Shutter speed- 1/4 second
Aperture- f/7
ISO 400
AWB
JPEG
(Night Scene)

I told him- eh.. brother why your shutter speed 1/4 second?
It will definitely shake.

He then cried over my shoulders and said that he does not know how to use this camera as he has just bought it before coming to UK! (To impress girlfriend/new wife I suppose?)

Poor thing.
Went through his previous 10 shots (he took about 100 pics already) and all of them were set at the above settings (even day time!!!!!)
They were either over exposed (he was quite lucky as the weather was very cloudy- gray skies) or blurr (He couldn't notice it as it looked ok on his LCD screen!!!!!! I zoomed up the picture and showed him the blurring and you could see tears coming out from the couple's eyes.

(Wanted to tell him- 'at least your complexion looks smoother with the blur effect')

He was like a hungry puppy.
And I was whacking him upside down.
I couldn't just walk off like this on my canon comrade (also- to prevent him from switching to Nikon). Its unethical!
I therefore did the noble thing and gave him a 20 minute tutorial about things like ISO, Aperture, Shutter speed, Shake, importance of tripod, histogram etc.
Told him to buy a cheap tripod and use the self timer mode to take the pics.
(I think I have just ruined a relationship)

7. Ignore the Nikonians
Wah lah.
The Nikonians are one interesting species.
Show-off character.
Always pretending to be very cool and pro.
Taking shots sideways, this way, that way, squatting, lying and whatever as though they are the one posing for the camera!
Never seen them carrying tripods- I know their camera very good-one (D3, D300..etc)
Wait till I get my 5DII


Returned to Cambridge at 11pm.
Dead tired (walked about 8km).
Need a rest.
No more photography for the coming 3 days.